Too close of a call

difficult child was taking a bath tonight. We check on him often as he doesn't want us in there with him (understandable at his age). He fell asleep-very scary. His head never went under the water (I didn't put much water in the tub)but it's still scary. He will absolutely not be allowed to take a bath after his night time medications are given. He had just taken the medications and gone right up for the bath-I'm talking less than 3 minutes and he didn't seem at all tired when getting ready for his bath. He was in the tub about 10-15 minutes total (luckily we checked on him about every three minutes so I know he wasn't asleep more than a minute or two but still). Usually the medications take 30-60 minutes to kick in. I'm mad at myself right now for letting him take the bath after having his medications and am not feeling like a good mom right now. Thought I would share so others don't make the same mistake.

Lord Sharon...you did nothing wrong. Your child wasnt hurt and if he had gone under water I assure you he would have woke up! I tell you this from personal experience.

I take a ton of medications and with the chronic pain sometimes a hot bath is all that helps my legs. I have been known to take two baths in the middle of the night. Trust me when I tell you I am not wide awake when Im in the bath! There have been many times when I have fallen asleep in the tub of water and woken myself up to my head falling under...lol. We wake up since no one is holding us down. We arent that drugged.

my son is a sleep walker....and a sleep talker, and a sleep runner and.....a sleep bather.
Yes, since he could walk, we can find him just about anywhere doing just about anything when he is supposedly in bed sleeping.
And yes, we find him in the tub.
ANd he also very very often falls asleep in tub.....as do I and both his sisters.
For us, tho, we have 5 people and only one bathroom and we cannot lock the bathroom door.....My dtr and my son are sound deep sleepers, but if their face hits water at all, they wake right up.

this does seem a good time to add----our neuros do keep reminding us to not permit son to lock bathroom door due to the fact he does have seizures. and not permit him to shower or bathe if he is home alone, lest he get hurt. Bathrooms are one of the highest home injjury locations in a home.
So- anyone reading the thread with a child who has been identified as having seizures, do keep an ear out when your child bathes/showers.

We have a photo of easy child at about age 6, asleep in the bathtub, She was on her tummy, too - head turned to one side, face pillowed on the porcelain. Not drugged, just exhausted.

The thing is, if they're old enough to have the strength to sit up by themselves and not too artificially sedated to totally suppress their breathing reflex, they should be OK. Still, it is scary.

What will you do when he's too old to let you in the bathroom with him, out of modesty?

Dreamer, you said your son is a sleepwalker, sleep bather etc - difficult child 1 sleeps SO soundly, that his eyes partly open. It's really creepy. he's been away on camps and had people talking to him in the night, certain that he was awake and listening to them because his eyes were open - and he was sound asleep!

difficult child 3 is also a bit like that, just not so extreme.

And easy child would sleep almost anywhere - another of our classic photos was from another very tired night. We got home late and tried to send her to bed. She announced, "I'm not tired!" then promptly curled up in the rocking chair (on her tummy again, somehow) and fell soundly asleep. husband wrote "I'm not tired!" on a card, leant it against her and took the photo. Then there's the time that she crawled halfway out of bed, head on the floor and legs still in the bed, and slept that way. Yep - photo of that, too.

And MY warning - those of you with incriminating photos like this of your kids - get them scanned well before your kid's coming of age birthday party, or the kid will swipe your only copies to avoid you embarrassing them with photos at their party. And that's a parent's job - to embarrass their kids! It's what makes all this struggle worthwhile!

yeah my son can tell whole long fantasy stories and you think he is awake....sometimes it is a little difficult to tell if he is awake or asleep. I think for me the weirdest thing is when he runs laps up and down the hall- much faster than he ever moves when awake.